Pat Douthwaite: An Uncompromising Vision

Pat Douthwaite, Gwen John in Paris, 1983

The Hepworth, Wakefield © The Estate of Pat Douthwaite

This show focuses on the prints and drawings of the self-taught artist. A troubled personality, her early training in mime and modern dance may have informed her uninhibited, energetic style.

Douglas Hall, former curator of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, framed her best, as 'a modern representative of the peintres maudits, unfortunate creative people like Modigliani, who were overwhelmed by the difficulties of life'. He also wrote the following: 'Like Baudelaire she is an artist able to create very directly and very beautifully out of the experience of evil whether it is felt as pain, alienation, or psychic distress.'